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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping and Biopsy for Endometrial Cancer at Early Stage with Laparoscopy
Published on: August 19, 2021
Evaluation of Vav3.1 as prognostic marker in endometrial cancer
Maximilian Boesch1,2,3,4, Sieghart Sopper5,6,7, Christian Marth8
1Lungenzentrum, Kantonsspital St. Gallen, Rorschacherstrasse 95, 9007, St. Gallen, Switzerland. Maximilian.Boesch@kssg.ch.
Purpose:
Vav3 is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor that regulates the activity of Rho/Rac family GTPases. In a study on ovarian cancer, we recently demonstrated pronounced prognostic and predictive value of Vav3.1, a specific truncation variant of the parental Vav3 gene. Here, we sought to investigate the role of Vav3.1 in the most prevalent gynecological tumor entity, endometrial cancer.
Methods:
Vav3.1 transcript levels were determined in a large cohort of endometrial cancer patients using variant-specific PCR (n = 239), and non-malignant endometrial tissue served as control (n = 26). Expression levels of Vav3.1 were stratified according to established clinicopathological characteristics and correlated to long-term patient survival (average follow-up of > 7.5 years). Type 1 and type 2 cancers were separately investigated.
Results:
While Vav3.1 was markedly overexpressed in endometrial cancer tissue, we could not detect associations with clinical parameters related to prognosis, such as FIGO stage and tumor grade. Kaplan-Meier estimators of different measures of survival failed to show prognostic significance of Vav3.1 in endometrial cancer. Lack of prognostic value was observed for both type 1 and type 2 cancers.
Conclusions:
Our study shows that Vav3.1 is not suited as a marker of cancer progression and/or treatment response in endometrial cancer. Feasibility and potential benefit of targeting Vav3.1 in endometrial cancer needs to be evaluated in future studies, proceeding from its clear, roughly ten-fold, induction in the malignant endometrium.
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